Opinion

Opinion

Business intelligence and analytics

• Why a data-driven world should consider an oath of ethics

  The Hippocratic Oath is perhaps the most widely known of Greek medical texts – and such an oath is needed in data science  Continue Reading

• Can we rely on AI?

  As artificial intelligence comes increasingly to bear on human lives, how ought we to address social and ethical concerns? Is a tighter symbiosis between human systems and AI systems the way forward?  Continue Reading

• How to tackle intellectual property crime

  Crimes against intellectual property are big business for organised crime groups, commercial competitors and foreign states alike. In the first of a series of legal columns, David Cowan offers a practical approach  Continue Reading

• Employees must be given the right to disconnect

  As enterprises increasingly turn to workplace monitoring technologies and more of the workforce moves to remote or hybrid working, unions are campaigning for workers’ ‘right to disconnect’ and not engage in digitally enabled work after hours  Continue Reading

• Why the London Data Charter could be a foundation stone in the city’s recovery

  London First’s director of connectivity and competitiveness, David Lutton, explains why data is at the core of the capital’s recovery plan  Continue Reading

• Healthcare digitisation at point financial services was in 1990s

  For all the talk about digitised healthcare, the sector is only where banking was in the 1990s. How can it catch up? Can the Covid-19 pandemic crisis be a catalyst?  Continue Reading

• Love (and impact sourcing) in the time of Covid

  Amanda Lewis, a lawyer specialising in IT outsourcing, describes the diversity and inclusion work of Digital Divide Data  Continue Reading

• What will it take for humanity to fully understand tech?

  The failure of the coronavirus contact-tracing system, due to limits set by an old Excel format, demonstrates a failure of technology to cope with human reliance  Continue Reading

• Data institutions play critical role in solving global social problems

  Nigel Shadbolt, co-founder of the Open Data Institute, argues that a new breed of data institutions have a key role to play in unlocking the social and economic value of data  Continue Reading

• Is our drinking data-driven?

  Caroline Carruthers, CEO of Carruthers and Jackson, cogitates on the balance between gut and data in making personal risk decisions, ahead of a CDO summer school  Continue Reading

• Why UK needs independent oversight body for contact-tracing app

  The public needs and deserves clarity, and not just assurances, over the UK’s Covid-19 contact-tracing app  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: Focus on metrics to manage risk

  How can security professionals help their organisations move from traditional governance, risk and compliance to integrated risk management that integrates risk activities from across an organisation to enable better strategic decision making?  Continue Reading

• If data really is the new oil, the raw materials need a different economic approach

  The International Monetary Fund is the latest to say that data is the new oil – the change agent in the economy – but striking it rich is a complicated matter  Continue Reading

• Regulators globally are shaping up to rein in Facebook

  We need to move fast and fix Facebook, before it breaks us  Continue Reading

• UK winners and losers in digital tech

  The UK's retail and telecoms companies are among the best in the world at digital technology, but a survey of digital leaders shows there is still room for improvement for many UK firms  Continue Reading

• How design thinking will affect today’s analysts

  A user research manager at Tableau Software explains the import of an eye-tracking survey, focused on understanding how humans consume dashboards  Continue Reading

• AI: Black boxes and the boardroom

  Computers can and do make mistakes and AI is only as good its training so relying purely on machine intelligence to make critical decisions is risky  Continue Reading

• Big data skills shortages – and how to work around them

  Businesses are finding it hard to recruit enough people with big data and analytics skills, but for CIOs there are alternative strategies to consider  Continue Reading

• Hacking the internet of things just got easier – it’s time to look at your security

  Are you taking security for internet-connected devices seriously enough?  Continue Reading

• The digital revolution: push or pull?

  The “digital revolution” has parallels with the 1889 Land Rush in Oklahoma. Some succeeded, some failed and others wished they had never set off on the journey  Continue Reading

• Let’s have some more straight talking on AI and robotics

  How do you ensure artificial intelligence grows with your business and does not turn into an assortment of technologies that may be fantastic but don’t integrate or scale well?  Continue Reading

• Emerging technologies: How can you cut through the noise?

  Technology leaders need to focus the raw potential of emerging technology into a set of priorities with measurable, tangible business impacts  Continue Reading

• What would Mr Tulkinghorn think?

  Law firms have begun to use AI in the review and analysis of data, which has profound implications for way law firms deliver services to their clients  Continue Reading

• How AI is disrupting the role of call centres and call centre staff

  Artificial intelligence could eliminate many white-collar jobs in coming decades. Its effects are already being felt in the call centre industry, but there is still no substitute for the human touch  Continue Reading

• The digital opportunity for CIOs

  CIOs have a unique opportunity to lead the digital strategy in their organisations, but they have to move quickly to make sure they have the right skills and infrastructure in place  Continue Reading

• Open data in the public sector – what’s next?

  Public bodies have made important strides in open data – but there is still a long way to go to fully realise the benefits and opportunities  Continue Reading

• Investigatory Powers Bill – the case for mass surveillance

  As the Investigatory Powers Bill goes through its final stages in Parliament, a former GCHQ intelligence officer puts the case for the bulk surveillance powers contained in the legislation  Continue Reading

• A Good American: a personal take on mass surveillance

  Director Friedrich Moser draws some conclusions on mass surveillance from his groundbreaking documentary on the work of NSA whistleblower, Bill Binney  Continue Reading

• A day in the life of the Investigatory Powers Tribunal

  Britain's most secretive court combined the surreal with the deadly serious, as it debated the legality of bulk data collection by MI5, MI6 and GCHQ  Continue Reading

• Brexit offers chance for UK to become a ‘data haven’

  Could the UK become a a safe place for both cloud and big data after it leaves the EU?  Continue Reading

• Graph databases: What are the benefits for CIOs?

  With enterprise interest in graph databases on the rise, Clive Longbottom explains why some businesses are favouring them over relational setups  Continue Reading

• How to transition to a cloud-based analytics environment

  Accenture Digital consultants say businesses can be more agile by way of cloud-based analytics  Continue Reading

• Wearable technology creates opportunities for retailers

  Wearable technology allows taxis to offer commuters a ride when it is raining, and restaurants' to tailor their dishes to customers' weight-loss plans.  Continue Reading

• How insight-driven enterprises use data to strategic advantage

  Accenture managing directors Nick Millman and Ray Eitel-Porter distil steps for enterprises to turn data into business insight from the firm’s consultancy  Continue Reading

• Will people be at the heart of your business transformation?

  Areas of the business that hold workforce data face a huge opportunity to help their organisations accelerate end-to-end transformation and increase their odds of success  Continue Reading

• Robots will transform, not replace, human work

  Claims that robots will steal our jobs are commonplace – but humans will find themselves working side by side with robots, rather than being replaced by them  Continue Reading

• When a slowdown in IT budgets is a good thing

  IT budgets will grow at their slowest rate for four years in 2016, yet companies are spending more on digital technology  Continue Reading

• Why it pays to get messy with big data

  Big data does not have to be perfect to give useful insights. The ability to make messy data usable quickly could become business critical  Continue Reading

• Essential business tool content analytics is held back by a lack of skills

  The emerging area of content analytics is fast becoming a desired business tool – but is being hampered by a growing skills gap  Continue Reading

• Can emulating social media make business applications more productive?

  Can social technologies be turned to account for business applications, and can they boost economic productivity?  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: Merging big data and security is the way to go

  How can log management be used to bolster information security and improve incident response without infringing user privacy?  Continue Reading

• If London wants to be a smart city it must learn how to use data

  New York City's model for using data analytics is an example of how London could become a more joined-up, efficient city  Continue Reading

• Apply data governance to maximise data insights

  How IT can apply data governance to help the business trust analytics insights and gain the most value from big data  Continue Reading

• Making sense of the internet of things

  Welcome to Thingalytics, the use of real-time analytics and algorithms to guide you through the maze of fast big data  Continue Reading

• Big data to unlock value from the industrial internet of things

  The industrial internet of things (IIoT) is changing the way we live and work, and extracting maximum value requires a big data approach  Continue Reading

• Driving Innovation with big data

  Rather than refusing the wider use of data outside the organisation, only by opening it up to third parties can we realise its true value  Continue Reading

• What businesses can learn from Buzzfeed’s success

  Buzzfeed has raised $50 million and is planning to use it to offer more content, expand its video production unit and open more offices  Continue Reading

• Big data put to work in digital transformation strategies

  Accenture’s Mike Sutcliff and Narendra Mulani argue that the fuel energising the digital transformation of business is big data  Continue Reading

• The business benefits of the third platform

  Ron Tolido explains the benefits of the Open Group Open Platform 3.0  Continue Reading

• Watch out: Oracle plants $23,000 licensing booby trap in 12c upgrade

  Oracle will charge $23,000 per processor if you inadvertently switch on the in-memory database option  Continue Reading

• Opinion: Why small steps in big data count

  Don’t get bogged down and fearful that big data means big steps – get started and learn as you go  Continue Reading

• The business case for big data

  Should you build a business case to invest time and effort into understanding what big data can do for your company?  Continue Reading

• Don’t create a mobile enterprise app for the sake of it

  Enterprise mobility applications need a clear objective, advises Accenture’s Nisha Sharma  Continue Reading

• Cloud business intelligence market will be worth $4bn by 2017

  Cloud business intelligence (BI) is still a small part of the market but growing at an impressive rate, contends analyst Tom Pringle  Continue Reading

• Is big data changing the fundamental way we think?

  Big data is transforming organisations but, to have real impact, it also requires a change in the way business leaders, analysts and IT teams think  Continue Reading

• Apply lean concepts in IT to make a bridge to the business

  Håkan Borglund, CIO at Toyota Material Handling Europe, says applying lean principles to IT deepen its connection to the business  Continue Reading

• Dark data could halt big data’s path to success

  Dark data – data that lacks any control or classification, but is all too prevalent in many organisations – could halt big data's path to success  Continue Reading

• Take an issues-driven approach to business intelligence

  Accenture advises CIOs to put business issues ahead of data, know the users, look beyond ERP data, and embed analytics in BI  Continue Reading

• Design applications to get the right data

  The right data helps enterprises make better decisions. Getting it, however, requires a fundamental shift in how applications are built  Continue Reading

• How wearable gadgets will impact the IT department

  The Chancellor George Osborne was spotted recently wearing a bio-monitoring wristband, suggesting wearable tech really has gone mainstream. Despite it being a useful and efficient product, it is limited when compared to the capabilities that such ...  Continue Reading

• BI: From specialist capability to mass-market availability

  Pringle & Company analyst advocates business-led business intelligence (BI). Three barriers must go: complexity, excessive cost, undue duration  Continue Reading

• Forrester: Three Best Practice Tips For Business Intelligence Success

  Martha Bennett gives three essential tips to help you ensure your BI project is a success.  Continue Reading

• Whiteboard it – the power of graph databases

  Graph databases map relationships between entities in a network. They won’t replace conventional relational databases, but for harnessing the value of interconnectedness they mark a breakthrough  Continue Reading

• Forrester: Best practice tips for business intelligence success

  Recognising the importance of data and analytics is one thing; putting in place the right processes and tools is a different matter  Continue Reading

• Cut big data down to size

  Big data value comes from interactive discovery not possible with standard business intelligence implementations, says HCL EAS  Continue Reading

• Ordnance Survey: Insurance industry can harness big data analytics

  Harnessing the power of big data presents insurers with a business opportunity. But is this industry ready for it?  Continue Reading

• Making sense of SAP HANA and in-memory computing – a user view

  For SAP users, in-memory computing tools such as SAP HANA promise to deliver a step change when it comes to data processing and analysis  Continue Reading

• The future of application development

  As cloud adoption continues to increase , most organisations are making important decisions in executing their cloud strategies  Continue Reading

• Putting the 'I' back into IT with data strategies big and small

  The "next big thing" is information itself. Whether big data, unstructured data or open data, the emphasis is shifting to the 'I' in IT  Continue Reading

• Visualisation and big data: new tools, same rules

  A new breed of data visualisation tools can work with big data. But they need governance to avoid Excel on steroids, and require greater agility of IT  Continue Reading

• How to create business value from social intelligence

  Social media gives access to huge amounts of data about markets, customers and competitors. The challenge is to turn this into intelligence  Continue Reading

• Ordnance Survey gets to grips with geospatial big data

  Ordnance Survey has pulled 17 databases into one Oracle geospatial database management platform  Continue Reading

• Integrated business services address enterprise MDM, analytics

  Accenture contends that integrated business services joined to master data management (MDM) can create an enterprise-wide master data, reporting and analytics capability  Continue Reading

• Getting the right processes in place to benefit from big data

  Most executives recognise that the vast amounts of data coming into their organisation can be used to make the business better, but few are taking full advantage  Continue Reading

• Unleash the value of consumer data

  Companies' ability to capture, mine and analyse consumer information has the potential to deliver economic value  Continue Reading

• Lack of understanding inhibits big data adoption

  Most organisations have no clear understanding of the advanced data analytics technologies now hitting the markets  Continue Reading

• Forrester: Five important guidelines for business technology governance

  Forrester believes that "good" IT governance is business technology governance – a conscious process by senior executives to establish strategies, structures, processes, and measurements for the management of technology to boost business results  Continue Reading

• Consumer capital: The new reality of 21st century data exchange

  Consumers are beginning a counter-offensive against the monopoly that industry has enjoyed over the spoils of big data  Continue Reading

• A new age of sentimental data

  Sentiment-analysis is nothing new - we just have new ways of capturing multiple digital sources and making better sense of the data  Continue Reading

• Business intelligence and analytics: how to develop a complementary strategy

  Instead of replacing traditional BI and data warehousing with predictive analytics, organisations should pursue a complementary strategy. BI needs big data analytics, which needs BI.  Continue Reading

• History lesson points way forward on data management projects

  Data management projects often suffer from historic amnesia. Projects that co-locate business and IT staff and keep to a manageable scale can achieve remarkable results, says consultant Andy Hayler.  Continue Reading

• Round table: Data management and the cloud

  Our round table of experts considers the question of what are the benefits and drawbacks of deploying database systems in the cloud.  Continue Reading